City short $2 million to pay lawsuits

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer

The city needs another $2 million to pay for more than $4.1 million worth of claims made in lawsuits against the city.

City Corporation counsel David Arakawa said the money was needed this year because the city ended up paying settlements for 11 major cases over the past several months. He said each year the city tries to estimate what might be needed as best it can.

Council Policy Chairman John Henry Felix had requested information about the rise in claims, but he said he found the amount to be justified after reviewing the cases.

Arakawa said that the city had appropriated $2.8 million in this fiscal year for such legal settlements. By March 1, $2.5 million of that was spoken for, he said.

Arakawa provided a list of cases settled and approved by the City Council. The list showed the biggest award of $612,000 went to police outreach worker Sharon Black in April to close her long-standing sexual harassment lawsuits against Honolulu Police Department officials.

Another $500,000 has been paid to someone who fell at a city refuse transfer station and suffered serious injuries. Another $360,000 is scheduled to be paid to a victim of 1997 traffic accident who suffered severe injuries.

And $310,000 was paid out after two teenaged boys were struck in or near a crosswalk fronting McKinley High School on Dec. 9. 1997. Another traffic accident in November of 1996 resulted in a $300,000 settlement that has not yet been paid.

A well-known case involved the fatal shooting of a Hale'iwa man by a police officer in 1998. A federal court jury found the city liable for the death of Fortunato Barques III in December and awarded his children $50,000.

The city is agreeing to pay $250,000 now because the Barques family had appealed the verdict. Arakawa said there could have been a retrial, medical special damages and attorney fees and costs could have topped $1 million in the case.

Barques was shot twice by a police officer who said he thought he was protecting himself against death or serious injury.

Two of the other cases involved traffic accidents on city roads, another involved a sexual harassments case, another was slip-and-fall case at a city facility; and one related to a sinkhole along the Ala Wai.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.